- This topic has 1 voice and 0 replies.
-
Posts
-
-
#News(Startup) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]
When was your last dental checkup? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third of U.S. adults haven’t sat in a dentist’s chair within the past 12 months. About 40% of them attribute this avoidance to cost, and that’s not shocking — it’s estimated that 23% of Americans, or about 74 million people, lack dental coverage.
These and other sobering statistics motivated engineers Alex Curry, Alex Frommeyer, and Dan Dykes to found Beam Dental, a Columbus, Ohio-based dental benefits provider that leverages algorithmic underwriting to drive down rates. It’s a winning formula — two years after Beam raised $22.5 million in a series C financing round led by Kleiner Perkins, it’s closed a series D that’s over twice that size.
In the 27 states where Beam’s plans are available, the company uniquely sells a semiannual subscription service that consists of a Bluetooth-enabled sonic toothbrush — the eponymous Beam Brush — along with paste, floss, and refill heads. Customers optionally sync after each brush with Beam’s companion smartphone app, which spits out a grade from “A” to “D” depending on how consistently they’ve kept up with their good hygiene routines. The better a group performs overall, the greater the cost savings on their monthly premiums; top brush scorers earn just over 10% off.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
